363 Local Residents Notified of Possible Exposure to Infection

CORNWALL – 363 residents in the five Eastern Counties are among the patients who will be receiving registered letters following the investigation into a private Ottawa-area medical clinic.

During the investigation, it was discovered that the clinic did not always follow some infection prevention and cleaning protocols. As a precaution, letters are being sent to approximately 6,800 patients who underwent endoscopic procedures at the clinic between April 2002 and June 2011.

The clinic, operated by Dr. Christiane Farazli, is located at 1081 Carling Avenue, Suite 606. Dr. Farazli has worked with Ottawa Public Health (OPH) during the investigation and has co-signed the letter to her patients. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit has been in regular contact with OPH concerning the matter.

“Even though the risk of getting an infection is very low, patients who receive a letter should contact their physician to discuss testing,” states Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Medical Officer of Health at the Eastern Ontario Health Unit.

In fact, the risks of associated infections are believed to be less than 1 in 1 million for Hepatitis B, less than 1 in 50 million for Hepatitis C, and less than 1 in 3 billion for HIV.

The letters include information for patients who would like to be tested. These are free blood tests and patients will need to go to a laboratory to have blood taken. If a patient would like to be tested they have several options which are outlined in the letter.

Ottawa Public Health has established a dedicated information line for residents who have questions related to this issue. Any person who underwent endoscopy in the facility during the time period mentioned and who has not received a letter by Tuesday, October 25th should contact Ottawa Public Health.

The OPH dedicated information line’s number is 613-580-2888.

The phone line will be available between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. (Monday to Friday) and from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Saturday and Sunday).

For additional information, please visit www.ottawa.ca/health.

The information line was open until midnight on Tuesday, October 18 and Wednesday, October 19.

Patients are being advised not to go to a hospital emergency department for blood testing. Hospitals will re-direct patients seeking blood tests for this issue to call OPH.

Related Articles

Jim McDonell, MPP for Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry, attended the February 5th screening of Windfall, a documentary shown at DC Community Centre in Dixon’s Corners, sponsored by the South Branch Wind Opposition Group (SBWOG).

While agreeing that division of communities is a major and negative issue facing rural Ontario landscapes targeted by the wind energy industry, McDonell’s main concern is with what the Green Energy Act is costing all Ontarians.

“We don’t believe the Green Energy Act is smart. Economically it makes no sense. We are overpaying for electricity.”

“When you look at the big picture,” he continued, the McGuinty government “went ahead without any business plan being done.”

McDonell referred repeatedly to the Auditor General’s Report which highlighted the ways in which the Green Energy Act has failed Ontario.

“It’s time to stop and look at the cost and see whether it makes sense to proceed.”

According to McDonell, he and his colleagues have been “advocating” that municipalities have their power returned to them. “Everything has been taken away,” he said, referring to the Green Energy Act which removes any power or voice municipalities once had concerning industrial wind turbines invading their rural communities.

Representatives from SBWOG will be meeting with McDonell on February 9th.

While he can’t do anything directly to help SBWOG, McDonell said that he intends to “take some of their concerns up to Toronto.”

Over the last few years, local businessperson Kim Hutt has been on a journey that has led her to turn a longtime hobby and a passion for knowledge into a home based business.

Her aim is for every person who comes through the door of her home to feel better when they leave.

Relocated just north of Iroquois, along County Road 40 (Stampville Road), through Souly Reconnected, Hutt offers a wide variety of self care and energy awareness techniques that she now shares with over 100 clients.

Kim is a certified relaxation therapist, natural health care consultant and self created health facilitator. The main floor of her farmhouse has been transformed into a holistic health therapy room, complete with an associated lending library and a fitness studio.

One of the latest programs being offered by Hutt is BellyFit , an ‘aerobics’ class which incorporates a holistic approach that calms the mind, inspires the spirit and gives participants a phenomenal full body workout.

“The saying no pain, no gain, doesn’t apply here,” said Hutt. “What you get here is a really good workout in a safe environment, and we have so much fun.”

Hutt is proud to be the only place offering these BellyFit classes around the whole region. This workout offers a creative combination of cardio inspired by belly dance, Bollywood and African dance infused with aspects of yoga and pilates conditioning all major muscle groups.

She is offering special rates to anyone who wants to try one of these classes if they mention this article.

BellyFit is only one of many therapies offered by Hutt.

Although she offers many therapies, the focus of all of them is to help people find balance in between their mental, physical and spiritual elements.

For Hutt, these therapies have helped her decrease her stress levels, reduce the need for some medications and feel more positive about life, even through some very stressful times.

She recommends that anyone interested in any of the therapies she offers sit down with her for a one-on-one assessment so she can recommend what best suits the client’s needs.

“I am not a healer, I help guide people through self-healing,” she says.

Through energy therapy including Reiki, where she is a Master in Usui Reiki and Quantum Touch Therapy, she is able to share hands on healing and comfort techniques with clients and people wanting to connect to their own healing abilities through love.

Hutt offers movement and sound therapy through classes such as Qi Gong and Bellyfit and use of tuning forks – chanting and toning. She also offers transformation meditation and breathwork classes through the WDMH oncology department to patients.

Hutt offers art therapy through spirit painting which she shares with students and faculty of Carleton University each semester in workshops.

She will be offering some of these spirit painting workshops at her home location in the near future, and encourages anyone interested to contact her directly (soulyreconnected@gmail.com), as space is limited. She is offering special rates with mention of this article.

Spirit painting involves calling on spiritual energy to guide a client through a creative process and then working with Hutt to analyze the resulting painting.

Hutt has been practicing many of these offerings personally for about 15 years, and loves that she is now able to share them with so many people through her business. “I get to see miracles everyday,” she says.

The student body at Iroquois Public School reaped the rewards of Mary Wilson’s grade 3-4 class reading skills last Wednesday, when, the Ottawa Senators Spartacat stopped in at the school for a visit.

Registered by their teacher in the Sens at School Program, the students read 10 minutes per night, and when they were done they had amassed 5,100 minutes of reading.

Their effort was rewarded when they were notified that they had won a school visit from Spartacat.

It was a big day at the school, with excitement running at fever pitch in anticipation of the special visitor who would first participate in a school assembly and then visit the grade 3-4s in their classroom.

In the gym, Sparty and Emily Knight who is the coordinator, Fan & Community Development for the Ottawa Senators and Scotiabank Place, led the students in a number of activities and games all geared towards reading, with a little hockey trivia thrown in.

“It was really fun,” said Wilson following the assembly “This has been a huge boost for these kids. Today they were really wired. They must have asked me 1,500 times ‘when is he coming’.”

It was an extra big day for the grade 3-4s when they were presented two tickets per student to the Sens’ Sunday night game against the Carolina Hurricanes, a reward given to only one (lucky) winning class per month.